Hadley marks National Youth Science Day with drone experiment

University of Illinois Extension Educator Megan Walsh helps students build a drone at Hadley Middle School on Oct. 3.

University of Illinois Extension Educator Megan Walsh helps students build a drone at Hadley Middle School on Oct. 3. (Posted by Charla Brautigam, Community Contributor)

Community Contributor Charla Brautigam

Hadley Middle School fifth-graders celebrated National Youth Science Day this week with a special experiment.

Led by University of Illinois Extension Educator Megan Walsh, students made mini airplanes from Styrofoam and learned how airplanes, helicopters and other flying contraptions can be outfitted with cameras to help scientists conduct research.

"Drones are used in a lot of different ways," she told students, inviting them to name a few ways drones are used today.

Common answers were: delivering packages, photographing areas that are too dangerous for humans to enter and military projects.

On Oct. 3 and 4, Walsh visited four classrooms at Hadley where she invited students to make their own drones using mini cameras attached to Styrofoam airplanes. The students then flew the planes over a patchwork of houses that Walsh brought with her.

The goal was to record how many houses were equipped with solar panels.

"We want to encourage interest in science, inquiry and learning more about the world around you," said Walsh, who travels throughout Will County each year sharing her passion for science.

"We like going out to the schools and sharing our hands-on programs with students," she added.